fb 8 - AUG 20 li 

CONSTITUTION 

AND 

PURPOSE OF MIRACLES 

AND 

PHILOSOPHY OF 
ANSWERED PRAYERS. 



(A Sequel to Composition and Office of Conscience.) 



PUBLISHED BY 

BRICE SUFFIELD, 
DANVILLE, ILL. 



PRESS OF 

ILLINOIS PRINTING CO., 

DANVILLE, ILL. 



CONSTITUTION 



AND 



PURPOSE OF MIRACLES 

AND 

PHILOSOPHY OF 
ANSWERED PRAYERS. 



(A Sequel to Composition and Office of Conscience.) 



PUBLISHED BY 

brice'suffield, 

DANVILLE, ILL. 



PRESS OF 

ILLINOIS PRINTING CO., 

DANVILLE, ILL. 



C Y\ o o 3. 



36943 



jl-j br&ry of Confess 

j "* wo Copies Received 
AUG 20 1900 

Copyright entry 

SECOND COPY. 

Delivered to 

ORDER DIVISION, 

AUG 22 I90u 









68375 



Copyright, 1900, by Brice Sueeield. 



^ 



i 

CONSTITUTION 
AND PURPOSE OF MIRACLES 

AND 

PHILOSOPHY OF ANSWERED PRAYERS. 



Whatever may be the divine plans for the future, the 
"present" object of this world is the spiritual development 
of man, and to that end Jehovah uses two forms of Ele- 
mental Law. 

The revelations of God's will to rational and free agents 
through conscience and inspiration are called Moral Law. 
The expression of God's will in the material universe is 
called Physical Law. 

Miracles are produced by spiritual interposition in the 
operation of physical laws for the following purposes: 

1. To cause humans to stop and wonder why this inter- 

ruption of physical law. 

2. To give credence to some instrument God is using. 

3. As a sign that God is sponsor for the consequences 

of the act He requires of the instrument Tie uses. 

4. To give assurance to believers. 

The blazing bush in the wilderness caused Moses to 
stop and tvonder why the bush was not consumed by the 



4 

fire. Then his conscience informed him that he was in 
God's presence, thus preparing him to receive necessary 
instructions from God (Exodus iii, 1 — vii, 7). 

When Moses told Pharaoh that the God of the Israelites 
had commanded them to go three days' journey into the 
wilderness and hold a camp meeting, Pharaoh asked, what 
are your credentials to prove that your God has sent you 
on this errand to me. Moses told his ser pant, Aaron, to 
throw his rod down on the ground before Pharaoh, and it 
became a live serpent. Then Pharaoh called his servants, 
the Magicians, and when they threw their rods on the 
ground, they also became live serpents. 

Here we see two spiritual forces opposing each other : 
God using Aaron's rod to prove that he had sent Moses on 
this errand, Satan using the Magicians' rods to refute the 
credential God had given to Moses; thus proving that it 
is not safe for Christians to accept a miracle as evidence 
in anything until they learn whose spiritual power wrought 
the miracle. 

In his book on Miracles, R. C. Trench proves that it is 
one of the functions of conscience to inform believers 
whether a certain miracle is God's work or Satan's work 
(Notes on miracles, pages 19, 20), hence we see that with- 
out the aid of conscience believers would not be able to 
distinguish between true and false doctrine. 



5 
When 

Aaron's serpent swallowed all tho other serpents, and then 
changed back into a rod soon as he laid hand on it, and 
was all there was left to show there had been such a con- 
test between the powers of Heaven and the powers of Hell, 
Pharaoh had all the credence he had any right to ask of 
Moses; and his continued political quibbling with Moses, 
until the Egyptian nation suffered such loss of treasure 
and life (in accordance with the law of recompense) for 
their dishonest and cruel treatment of the people that had 
been sojourning in their land, was a lesson that has been 
duplicated in this land as a penalty for our unchristian 
treatment of our colored brethren; and will be repeated 
in the near future, if we continue present methods of sell- 
ing indulgence to Rum Pirates, to oppress and murder 
helpless women and children, for revenue. 

The test of power between Jehovah and Satan, in Pha- 
raoh's case, also illustrates the fact that miracles never 
convert unbelievers. 



Although God sent an angel to emphasize the miracle 
He wrought, when fire consumed the food, Gideon had 
prepared for the angel (Judges vi, 21). Brave as Gideon 
was, he needed the additional strength and assurance 
received through having his "personal prayer answered," 
so in answer to his prayers God gave him all the signs he 
asked for in the repeated miracle of the fleece and dew. 



6 

Now 

Let us notice some of the erroneous teaching of noted 
scholars which causes so much confusion in the minds of 
Christians. 

Trench claims that after the Church was fully organized 
the necessity for special miracles ceased, because the 
"sacraments of the church" are all the miracles that are 
needed under a dispensation of grace. Thus assuming 
that the miracle of regeneration is wrought, through the 
ceremon3^ of water baptism; and that God works a miracle 
at every communion service of the church, by transub- 
stantiating the bread and wine into the actual flesh and 
blood of Christ. Lange, in his comments on Acts iii and 
iv, admits that Peter as an individual could not work a 
miracle, but claims that the Church, through its repre- 
sentatives Peter and John, did perform a miracle in heal- 
ing che lame man at the gate of the temple. And by 
endorsing K. H. Rieger, wdio says, "How well the apos- 
tles understood the method of exercising, in the most 
emphatic manner, their power to forgive sins, 5 ' Lange, 
in an indirect manner, teaches that the Church not only 
performed the miracle of healing the man's bodily infirm- 
ity, but also had the Christ-given power to forgive his 



sins.* 



*We have not called attention to those errors in a spirit of carping- crit- 
icism, but rather as apology for so much ignorance in all our churches con- 
cerning- God's manner of dealing with men. 






7 

The term "church" has three distinct meanings: 

1. The Bride of Christ, which includes all humans that 

have been regenerated by spiritual birth (John iii, 
28-30; Eph. v, 23). 

2. The machinery of organization which enables those 

regenerated persons to work in harmony, and wor- 
ship God in convenient bodies. 

3. The building in which such organizations hold meet- 



ings. 



By a more perfect understanding of God's plans through 
discovery of the composition of "conscience," we now see 
that the erroneous conclusions of Trench and Lange came 
through misunderstanding Simon Stone's "confession" 
recorded in the sixteenth chapter of Matthew. By sepa- 
rating that confession from all the glamour of Roman cor- 
ruption and reading Matt xvi, 13-19, under the light of 
the united teaching of all the apostles, we see that Christ 
did not tell Simon Stone that He would build the New 
Dispensation upon him as an individual; nor upon the 
machinery of any human organization, but upon the prin- 
ciple of knovnng with God, which in the English language 
is expressed in the term "conscience." 

The simple facts in the case of the lame man are: Peter 
and John (being in full communion with God through the 
operation of conscience) saw the afflicted man and wanted 
to help him. Peter's conscience informed him what to do; 



8 

then with full conviction that it was God's will reflecting 
from his eye to the man's eye, took his hand and lifting 
him up, said: a In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, 
walk." God' caused the necessary flow of nervous fluid 
through the man's system so that he received perfect use 
of his limbs. The people stopped and wondered in gaping 
amazement. Peter, seeing his opportunity to preach a 
sermon (the Holy Spirit working through his conscience, 
inditing the ideas, and Peter clothing those ideas with his 
own language), said, u Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at 
this, or why look so earnestly on us, as though by our 
own power or piety we had made this man walk?" Then 
proceeded to explain that Jesus Christ, whom they had 
crucified, w r as the person who had given the man his per- 
fect soundness, and that after seeing such ample proof 
that Jesus was the true Messiah, unless they repented and 
received forgiveness for their sins, they would forfeit 
their right and interest in the kingdom of their promised 
Messiah. 

By thus witnessing for Christ, before the people whose 
attention had been arrested by the wonder God had 
wrought, Peter and John persuaded several thousand of 
those people to accept Jesus of Nazareth as their Savior. 

The idea advanced by some, that Christ wrought mira- 
cles of healing as acts of benevolence, and not as creden- 
tials to prove that He was the Messiah, is also absurd and 
misleading. When God created this world He willed that 






9 

the suffering caused by violation of physical laws should 
be part of the environment which would cause man to 
seek divine wisdom through the means advertised by 
moral law, and we find no evidence in the Bible that 
Christ ever interrupted the operation of physical law, ex- 
cept for some purpose which can be classed under the 
terms, Wonder, Credence, Sign and Assurance. 

Assisting a human to recover from sickness, either with 
or without medicine, is not a miracle unless there be some 
proof that God caused such healing for one of those pur- 
poses. The inherent constitution of God is love, and 
needs no miracle to prove His benevolence. 

The points we wish to make plain and distinct are that 
no man except Jesus the Christ has ever wrought a miracle; 
and that it was the divinity of Christ, and not the human- 
ity of Jesus, which gave Him power to work miracles: 
also that God can provide a sign without working a special 
miracle; and that whenever there is necessity for a special 
miracle in any age, persons who hold personal communion 
with God are as liable to be used of God, as instruments 
for publishing a miracle, as in the days of the apostles. 

Pastor Andereck and the writer believe that the eman- 
cipation from uncontrollable appetite for tobacco, noticed 
in foot note of page 18 in my book on conscience, was 
attained through the operation of that Deacon's own con- 
science, in answer to Brice Suffield's prayers. I also be- 
lieve that the persistent refusal of that Deacon to vyifa 



10 

for Christ by public acknowledgment that his emancipa- 
tion was effected through the operation of his conscience, 
created the necessity for a special miracle to give credence 
to the claim that God has revealed the true idea of con- 
science through Brice Suffield. 

At a business meeting of the First Baptist Church, 
Danville, Illinois, April 5, 1899, Chairman of Trustees 
reported: 

1. That there was mortgage on the parsonage for 

$1,500, drawing $105 interest per year; interest 
was not being paid, and if those conditions continued 
a few years more the church would not own a 
shingle in the building; that there was a church 
debt of $1,100, and if parsonage was sold the pro- 
ceeds would pay off all parsonage and church debts. 

2. That the parsonage could be rented to outside party 

for cash, at $240 per year. 

flotion was flade to Sell Parsonage. 

Believing that the greater part of money invested in the 
parsonage had been furnished by persons not present 
members of the church for that special purpose, and that 
if all surplus of rent had been~used to pay off mortgage, 
instead of the incidental expenses of the church, the par- 
sonage would clear itself of all encumbrance in a few 
years, as was intended by the originators of the parsonage 
enterprise, 



11 

The Writer Pleaded Earnestly, 

1. That the Report of Trustees showed that it did not cost 

the church anything to keep the parsonage. 

2. That it would be dishonest and disgraceful to use the 

money invested in the parsonage to pay our own per- 
sonal debts. 

3. That under present conditions, the only way to save 

that money from being squandered in a manner that 
would dishonor bequests of the dead, and insult 
Jehovah, was to keep it in the parsonage. 

Then 

Seeing that some were determined to get rid of the par- 
sonage, while none but myself spoke against the motion, 
I sat down and prayed silently during remainder of the 
meeting that God would save the church from disgrace. 

Pastor Williams appointed 

Chairman of Trustees, Assistant Superintendent of Sun- 
day School and Church Treasurer to collect and count 
ballots. 

Treasurer became much confused while counting the 
ballots, and when the waiting audience called for result, 
he arose and stated that there were 29 votes in favor of 
and 14 against selling. But as there was only one vote 
over the necessary two-thirds majority, in favor of sell- 
ing, and it would not be safe in a church of 300 members 



1 V 

with only 43 voting, to sell the parsonage on one vote, he 
must declare the motion lost. 

Meeting Adjourned. 

Bat after part of voters had gone out the janitor 
informed Trustees that there had not been 43 persons in 
the room. 

Then ballots were recounted; 29 in favor of, but only 8 
against selling, showing nearly three-fourths in favor of 
selling. 

April 14, 1899, I received postal card from tenant of 
my land in Mason county, 111. , informing me of opportu- 
nity to sell forty acres for cash. 

April 15, 1899, meditated all day on plans to save par- 
sonage from being sold. 

April 16, 1899, it was announced from the pulpit that 
on account of error in counting votes, the parsonage mat- 
ter would have to be reconsidered. Motion carried that a 
letter be sent to each member of the church informing 
them that another election would be held in thirty days. 

Then 
I made a proposition that I would pay all claims against 
the parsonage and return it in good condition free of debt, 
if the church would let me have control of it for fifteen 
years. 

April 17, 1899, Trustees met to consider above proposi- 
tion. Then I made second proposition: that if I could sell 



13 

my land, I would loan the church $1,500 for five years at 

6 per cent., to pay off mortgage on parsonage which drew 

7 per cent. Trustees voted to accept second proposition. 

On Same Night 

I sent letter of instruction to the tenant that if he could 
sell my land, pay off present encumbrance, and send me 
draft for $1,700, to do so. (That would bring my land 
down to the price suggested by the tenant.) Allowed 
him one week for answer. 

April 18, 1899, unexpectedly met Rev. S. F. Gleason, 
of Mahomet (holder of parsonage mortgage), who informed 
me that he was willing to either release or carry the mort- 
gage, whichever w^as best for the church. 

April 20, 1899, received following letter from the tenant: 

Mason City, III., April 18, 1899. 
Dear Brother: I do not know what to say in regard to selling 
the farm. Have not seen the party since 1 wrote you the card. 
Will look the matter up the first chance I get to go to town. I 
am so very busy that I can not get time to go to town very often. 
If you do not want me to sell to the party let me know at once. 

Your brother and sister. 

J. U. Surface. 

I showed this beg-off letter to the Trustees, informing 
them that Rev. Gleason was willing to carry present 
mortgage on the parsonage; and as the land was part of 
the Suffield estate referred to in my book on conscience, 1 



14 

would sooner pay one per cent, on parsonage interest than 
sell my land. 

By that time the church had discovered that the parson- 
age was very profitable property to hold, and at the next 
regular business meeting a motion to indefinitely postpone 
question of selling parsonage carried unanimously. 

Notice some other matters coincident with parsonage 
matter: In November, 1897, I borrowed $800 for two 
years (with privilege to pay off principal note after one 
year), from the Odd Fellows Lodge, of Mason City, 111. 

On 17th of November, 1898, the Lodge refused to either 

raise the loan to $1,000 or let me take it up. Ten days 

later the Treasurer discovered the provision in my note 

and acknowledged my right to take up the loan, but same 

mail brought information that through unexpected sale of 

rent corn, sufficient money to publish the first edition of 

my book on conscience was in the bank at Mason City; so 

I let loan matter rest until March, 1899, w r hen I began to 

negotiate for new loan of money to publish second edition 

of the book. 

But all the urging of myself, the tenant at Mason City 

and a law firm at Havana, 111., could not induce the Lodge 
to accept payment on my note so that I could sign papers 
for a new loan or expend money that would make me una- 
ble to carry debt on the parsonage until April 24, 1899. 
Four days after the Trustees had decided to let the par- 
sonage matter rest indefinitely. 



15 

All of which can be proven by Messrs. George S. Hoff, 

0. A. McFarland, Danville; Gail Dray, Chicago; Lacey & 
Williams, Havana; J. U. Surface, and officers of Odd 
Fellows Lodge, Mason City. 

When We Consider, 

1. That the pastor unwittingly assigned the "church 

clerk's duty" of counting ballots to the "treasurer," 
who had always opposed the parsonage enterprise, 
was the bookkeeper who blundered in not giving par- 
sonage account proper credit for 8100 per year net 
revenue the church had received from parsonage rent, 
which gave excuse for vote on question of selling 
parsonage; and the deacon who has refused to attrib- 
ute to the 'principle of conscience" due credit for his 
emancipation from tobacco habit. 

2. That the tenant wrote the postal card as a matter of 

fair dealing with my brother, F. H. Suffield, of Can- 
ton, Kan., who could not make a sale of his share of 
the Suffield farm without putting my land in same 
tract. Also that in tenant's beg-off letter he ignored 
explicit instructions from me, his conscience impell- 
ing him to ask for further instructions and sio*n my 
sister's name, thus bridging over a critical time, and 
reminding me that while my sister and her husband 
own two-thirds of the Suffield farm, it is convenient 
for them to work all of it. 



16 

3. That all the persons whose oversight and blunders were 

used of God in working out this miracle are men of 
good intentions and high standing. 

4. That many months before that vote was taken, when 

Baptist visitors from Indianapolis and Chicago told 
me how it had grieved them when they heard that 
some of the Danville people entertained ideas of sell- 
ing their parsonage, I told them there was no danger 
of the church disgracing itself in that way, because 
my conscience assured me that God would respect the 
prayers of sister Brackall (a pious lady who observed 
the tithe law and invested $400 of God's money in the 
parsonage), 

We Feel Justified in Claiming 

That the spiritual interruption of physical law in confusion 
of the mind of the Treasurer, causing the error in count- 
ing ballots, and so many coincidents in different parts of 
the country, contrary to intentions of participants in those 
coincidents, preventing a second vote on sale of parsonage, 

Displays flore Hiraculous Power 

Than the healing of the lame man, which but for its con- 
nection with Peter's sermon could be classed as a mind 
cure, because in his case there was co-operation of his will, 
with increased natural flow of nervous fluid similar to 
other cases that have been caused by fright and human 
influence. 



17 

Whether the reader accepts the parsonage incident as a 
"special miracle' 1 or only a sign, does not detract anything 
from its value as a credential, and the question naturally 
rises, if "conscience" is the avenue through which God 
has held communion with humans since Adam and Eve 
were banished from the garden of Eden, why has full 
knowledge of its composition been withheld from man so 
long? 

The Answer Is, 

All nations have not been sufficiently developed to make 
proper use of such information until the present epoch of 
the world's history. 

In the Past 

God has winked at manv things which He is refusing to 
bear with any longer, because the human race has devel- 
oped to a stage which demands a higher type of manhood 
than any past age. 

Satan has agencies to correspond with man's animal 
development, and unless Jehovah insists on proper spir- 
itual development, the increasing vices of man will destroy 
the inhabitants of the whole A\orld in less than two cen- 
turies, thus thwarting all of God's plans for developing 
humanity to the condition promised in the eleventh chap- 
ter of Isaiah. Moreover, the second advent of Christ 
cannot be consummated until that prophecy is fulfilled. 

When the subtile spirit called alcohol was first discov- 



18 

ered, with its wonderful power to dissolve substances in 
art and medicine, and peculiar effect upon the nervous 
fluid in animal bodies, it was considered one of the great- 
est temporal blessings God has given to man. But the 
experiences and investigations of the nineteenth century 
have produced abundant evidence that while alcohol is a 
valuable agent for preparing other substances for useful 
purposes, the baneful effects of alcoholic beverages upon 
individual character and national life have made the liquor 
traffic the most complex and dangerous problem this nation 
has to grapple with. 

In 1872 leaders in temperance work thought that the 
best way to abolish the liquor traffic would be to club this 
issue with woman suffrage so that the women could do the 
praying while the men did the wire-pulling, and thus 
organize a political party that would insure needed re- 
forms. But experience has proved the fallacy of cumber- 
ing a national issue with a state issue that was unpopular 
in a majority of the states. 

Woman suffrage can make most headway as a state issue 
so long as we retain our present form of government, be- 
cause all anti-suffrage voters cannot flock into any single 
state that is making suffrage the issue of that day. More- 
over, the women are much better prepared for franchise 
in some states than others. The success of woman suf- 
frage in enlightened states encourages the women of other 



19 

states to prepare themselves for franchise, and there is no 
danger of needing bayonets to enforce woman suffrage. 

Prohibition of alcoholic beverages can make most head- 
way as a national issue, because when the people have 
placed an amendment in any state constitution to protect 
their lives, liberty and property from the rum pirates (an 
inherent right recognized in the Fourteenth Amendment 
to our National Constitution), the liquor associations of 
the whole nation have concentrated-their power against 
that state and prevented the full enforcement of any law 
which interfered with the liquor traffic. 

Hence 

We now see the necessity of rescuing the chief offices of 
the nation first, and then of states and counties, because 
representatives of the people will make necessary laws 
for their protection, when they have assurance that the 
executive officers of nation, state and county will enforce 
them. 

The disgraceful conduct of President McKinley in the 
matter of army canteens at same time that Hawaiian 
Islands, Philippine Islands, Porto Rico and Cuba are be- 
ing received under protection of this government, makes 
this a very propitious time for pushing prohibition into 
the White House. 

Xear-sighted temperance workers often speak of saloons 
as "legalized" dens of iniquity. And in litigations in 



20 

states that have tried to abolish the manufacture and sale 
of alcoholic beverages, the liquor associations have ex- 
pended enormous sums of money in hiring able lawyers 
to prove that distillers and brewers have " vested rights" 
and that they should receive compensation for any loss 
incurred when prohibition stops their machinery. 

But the united decisions of the Supreme courts have 
been: That there is no inherent right in any citizen of this 
Nation to carry on a business which produces so much crime 
and destroys so much life; nor in any department of this 
government to give permission to any person to carry on 
such business. 

Those Decisions of Supreme Courts 

(Based on the declaration in the Constitution of the 
United States: "That no person shall be deprived of life, 
liberty or property without due process of law"), 

And 

The statistics gathered by high medical authority in this 
and other nations, showing that if all men and women 
used alcoholic beverages the insanity, sterility and other 
diseases generated in human constitutions by what liquor 
dealers call "temperate drinking," would depopulate this 
world in less than two centuries, 

Prove 

That present methods of "fostering and taxing" the liquor 
traffic are as unlawful and vicious as it would be for our 









21 

national President and city mayors to use the army and 
police to pillage private homes for revenue. And that 
the liquor dealer who sells beverages which he knows will 
cause the drinkers to destroy their families or fellow men, 
is as guilty of the crime of murder as if he destroyed those 
victims with a dagger. Such accusation being true, how 
much less crime is committed by the voters who compose 
any political organization which assumes the responsibil- 
ity of selling unconstitutional indulgence to the liquor 
dealers to destroy American citizens with alcoholic bev- 



erages. 



While it is evident that a converted Christian who is 
well informed on this subject cannot vote a license ticket 
for any consideration (because a converted Christian who 
has correct understanding of any subject, u has the mind 
[thought] of Christ on that subject," and the idea of Jesus 
the Christ voting to license the liquor traffic is too absurd 
to be entertained by any rational being), w T e are aware 
that there are manj^ voters who abhor the liquor traffic, 
but do not see how "under present conditions" it is possi- 
ble for them to vote against that traffic without neglecting 
other issues that need attention, and it seems unjust to 
publish the above statements without offering the follow- 
ing hints for solution of the dilemma of such voters: 

1. Four years ago the Prohibition party adopted a 
single-issue platform for the purpose of giving all 



22 

voters an opportunity to express their opinion of 
the liquor traffic, without being compelled to vote 
for other issues that are repulsive to them. 

2. The official oath of every executive officer requires 

him to perform his duties regardless of what party 
elected him, and the enforcement of law depends to 
a great extent upon the wisdom and honesty of 
the President, governors and sheriffs. 

3. As Commander-in-chief of the army and navy, the 

President has authority to forbid indulgence of any- 
thing that interferes with the health or efficiency 
of his soldiers and sailors, and power to prevent the 
traffic in alcoholic beverages in anyplace controlled 
by the army or navy, 

i. Under present conditions, it is not possible for either 
of the two dominant parties to nominate a Presi- 
dent who will fulfill his duties concerning the liquor 
traffic. 

5. It has been common for voters who were dissatisfied 

with candidates nominated by packed or unfair 
primaries to vote for the head of some other ticket 
without feeling unjust to their own party. 

6. A voter in the dilemma referred to above can vote 

for president, governor and sheriff, on the Prohibi- 
tion ticket, without interfering with his vote for 
legislative officers on any other ticket. This 



t.rf^ 



23 

method enables him to vote for legislators who 
may enact the laws he desires, and at same time 
give those legislators a practical demonstration of 
his views on the liquor question. Moreover, the 
liquor associations fear this method of voting more 
than any other, because it creates a demand for un- 
biased information on all subjects and defeats 
political bossism, the most important fort of rum 
pirates. 
Do you ask w^hat influence can induce sufficient voters 
to electa Prohibition president? 

Prayer 

Is the only influence used by humans that has no limit 
to its power. 

While Christ was explaining the Divine manner of hold- 
ing communion with man, recorded in John xiv, he said: 
"Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father 
in me? The words that I speak to you I speak not from 
myself, but the Father abiding in me does His works. 
Believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father in me, 
or else believe me on account of the works themselves. 
Verily, verily, I say to you, he that believes in me, the 
works that I do he will do also, and greater than these 
will he do, because I go to the Father. And whatever ye 
shall ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may 
be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask me anything in 
mv name, I will do it. 



24 

u If ye love me ye will keep my commandments, and 1 
will ask of the Father, and He will give you another advo- 
cate that He may he with you forever, the Spirit of truth, 
whom the world cannot receive because it beholds Him 
not, neither knows Him; ye know Him, because He abides 
with you, and will be in you." 

Hence 

We see that the conditions of answered prayer are: 

1. Some information concerning the object of the prayer. 

2. Harmony with Christ through obedience to the com- 

mands of God, whether recorded as statutes in the 
Bible or revealed during personal communion wdth 
Jehovah through the functions of conscience. 

In our book on Composition and Office of Conscience 
w r e have illustrated the Divine manner of holding personal 
communion with man by pictures which can never be 
effaced from the memory of anyone that has fully com- 
prehended them, but a few w r ords here may assist that 
comprehension. 

Some eminent scholars have supposed that conscience is 
an organ or sense which enables man to discern between 
right and wrong, as sight enables us to discern between 
light and darkness; w T hile others have believed that con- 
science only calls our attention to the necessity of discern- 
ing betw T een right and wrong, as appetite calls our atten- 
tion to the needs of our physical nature, and, like appetite, 



25 

may be so perverted by improper education that it can 
become an instrument of penal injury to us. 

But those views do not agree with the teaching of the 
Bible and human experience. 

The thoughts of every responsible human are influenced 
to such an extent by two spiritual beings — Satan and the 
Holy Spirit — that cdl the free agency man has in this matter 
is the choice as to which of those two beings shcdl control his 
actions. When man so surrenders his w T ill to God's will 
that Satan's influence is excluded from the thoughts that 
are passing through his mind, thus permitting the Holy 
Spirit to indite said thoughts, this reciprocal action of 
God and man is called conscience, which means "knowing 
with God" — in other words, that God and man are think- 
ing the same thought at the same time. It is recorded in 
the ninth chapter of Daniel that while he was praying in 
Babylon for a revival of religion among the returned Jews 
at Jerusalem, God sent'an angel to inform him that Jeho- 
vah had granted his request u at the beginning of his sup- 
plications," thus proving that Daniel had been sending 
God's thought back to the throne of Jehovah as his own 
thought. 

The query may arise in the minds of some, When Jeho- 
vah wants to pour out a blessing upon any person or 
nation, why does He wait until humans appropriate His 
thought and send it back to Him in prayer as their own 
thought before He performs His own omnipotent will? 



26 

It was Willed of God, 

In the original plan of this world, that man should receive 
his spiritual education through being a witness for Christ 
(if Adam and Eve had been intelligent witnesses for 
Christ" Satan could not have seduced them), and from the 
revival in Jerusalem in answer to Daniel's prayer to the 
present time no one can cite a genuine revival of Christian 
religion in any land that has not started in uncommon sup- 
plicating prayer by one or more humans. Any intelligent 
mind that will meditate upon this idea can see that there 
could not be that continual spiritual growth in the charac- 
ter of the human race, which God foreordained should be, 
in any other way. 

Through allusion to the "cleansing of conscience from 
dead works," Heb. ix, 14, and to the time when "God's 
will would be clearly impressed upon the mind of His 
obedient children," Heb. viii, 10, 11 (in Paul's explanation 
of the two covenants), the Holy Spirit intimates that there 
would be continual revelations (or unfolding) of God's 
method of holding communion with man to correspond 
with each epoch of the world's history until the second 
coming of Christ. And as the predominant sins of this 
epoch are "mammon worship" and "willful ignorance of 
spiritual matters," it has become necessary for Christian 
workers to understand how the prayer of one human may 
influence the actions of other humans. 



27 

The providences of God lead humans to seek "regenera- 
tion." Correct information conveyed from one human to 
other humans produces "conversion" so soon as that infor- 
mation is appropriated through the functions of conscience. 

The words used to express prayer assist the comprehen- 
sion of those who utter and those who hear prayer, but it 
is the sincere "desire" of the. petitioner (not the words) 
that is transmitted through the functions of conscience to 
the person we wish to influence. 

Those three fundamental principles in theology enable 
us to make the following analysis: 

1. God desires our aid in the conversion of an individual. 

2. Through the functions of conscience God causes us 

to become anxious for the salvation of that indi- 
vidual from the power of Satan in present life as 
well as future. 

3. We pray God to so open the understanding of that 

individual that he may comprehend his duty and 
privileges. 

This Prepares Us to See, 
a. That our power to discern when and how to influence 
other humans through prayer, depends upon our 
being in continual communion with God. 

h. That the power of the individual to comprehend his 
duties and privileges depends upon his information 
on those subjects. 



28 

This analysis suggests our "obligation" to put correct 
information within reach of the individuals we pray for, 
and "the fact" that it is not necessary for us to know what 
combination of influences God may use to open a session 
of conscience in the mind of the person prayed for, be- 
cause there may be sufficient information stored in the 
mind of that person to answer God's present purpose, 
while the efforts we put forth may be carrying out God's 
plan of storing information in the mind of others for 
future sessions of conscience in their minds. Thus we 
see that distance between us and the person prayed for 
makes no difference in the effect of our prayer upon that 
person; and that God uses our interest in persons we know 
to stimulate us in promulgating correct knowledge of 
Christ's kingdom among persons we do not know. 

RESUME. 

God is making the indulgence and traffic in narcotics a 
test question in religion, 

And 
The general knowledge the peoples of the world now have 
of the baneful effects of alcoholic beverages, make the 
prohibition of manufacture and sale of such beverages a 
convenient test question through which to solve the prob- 
lem as to how far state paternalism should go in protect- 
ing citizens from the tyranny of "greed for wealth" and 
"brute force." 



29 
Hence, 

We find that a general revival of religion and national 
prohibition of traffic in banef ul narcotics are so dependent 
upon each other that neither is possible without the other. 
In Case 3, in the chapter on prayer, in our book on con- 
science, it will be seen that God has heard the prayers of 
his children for the abolition of American saloons, the 
Holy Spirit intimating in that prayer of August, 1898, 
the most vulnerable place in the business of the rum 
pirates, viz., the army canteen. 

The Next Question Is, 

Will voters defeat the man who is individually responsi- 
ble for the present existence of the army canteen saloon, 
and start the tide of public opinion in the right direction 
with ballots at the presidential election of 1900, or shall 
present methods of fostering the liquor traffic be continued 
until political corruption, and war, and pestilence compel 
this nation to settle the liquor question with bullets? 
Danville, 111., August, 1900. 

P. S. If the reader has not already read the book by 
same author on the Composition and Office of Conscience, 
the perusal of that book followed by a second reading of 
this one will be helpful in comprehending the subjects of 
both books. 



ENDORSEMENTS 

OF THE FIRST EDITION OF 

COflPOSITION AND OFFICE OF 

CONSCIENCE. 



I am well acquainted with Mr. Brice Suffield, and know 
him to be an honest, successful Gospel-Temperance and 
Sunday-school worker, with uncommon ability for com- 
prehending the problems noticed in this book. This has 
been especially so since 1880, when, in a consecration 
meeting led by B. F. Jacobs, at a district Sunday-school 
convention, held in Champaign, 111., his conscience im- 
pelled him to ask for increased spiritual power at any 
price. The price, in family bereavement and financial 
sacrifice, has been immense, but when he meets all who 
will be drawn into the kingdom through the influence of 
this book, with his loved ones in the Heavenly City, we 
do not believe he will think the price has been too great. 
His exposition of Matt, xvi, 13-18, and the method of 
illustrating the operation of conscience, used in this work, 
were first made public in the teachers' meetings of the 
Danville Church while I was their pastor. The teaching 



31 

is sound, and I can endorse it most heartily, believing 

that all who read the book honestly and intelligently will 

be benefited by it. 

W. R. ANDERECK, 

Pastor of Baptist Church, 
Wauxegan, III., Feb. 28, 1899. 



As no effort put forth for the glory of God and the 
good of man ever fails, I am confident that this work of 
Mr. Suffield's will fulfill its mission. Sent forth with 
prayer, it expresses the strong desire of a child of God to 
hasten His kingdom. It is specially helpful in promoting 
the principle of abstinence from everything that will tend 
to weaken Christian character or influence. I bespeak 
for the book a careful reading, and pray that it may realize 
all that its author anticipates for it. 

WILLIS E. PARSONS, 

Pastor First Presbyterian. Church. 

Danville, III., Makch 6, 1899. 



PUBLISHED BY BRICE SUFFIELD, DANVILLE, ILL. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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